How NOT to Teach Women's Suffrage: Part Two
In Part Two, it's three cheers for the accidental Victorian voters.
Hello, you wondrous human đđ»
Are you ready for Part Two of how you should absolutely never ever teach women's suffrage, no matter what, how and when?
OF COURSE YOU ARE.
So, let's begin at the beginning:
Traditionally, industrialisation and women's suffrage aren't bedfellows. But one thing that has to be understood is that this industrial period makes a very significant change to many sections of British society. To some extent, it's this change that puts the 'Revolution' in 'Industrial Revolution.'
That change, dear reader, is political consciousness.
It was a waking-up to systemic political injustice. It was experienced by people of all genders, races and social classes.
It encompassed abolition and empire, as well as voting rights.
Last week, I alluded to some women who were able to vote in elections before the Representation of the People Act in 1918.
The question is how were they able to do it?
First, a bit of context:
We have to be very clear about how small the electorate was in the 18th century. I mean, it was TINY. Because voting was linked to property and wealth, only about 3% of the population were able to vote.
This part is key: women were NOT legally excluded from voting at this time.
Some women could vote in parliamentary elections. Some used their vote, others abstained or sent a male proxy to vote on their behalf. Remember that at this time, a woman could not legally own property if she was married (it became the property of her husband). So these early voters were not only extremely wealthy but they were unmarried or widowed.
Such women were able to exercise this right because voting legislation referred to "people." In legal speak, "people" meant people of all gender expressions.
This changed in 1832, and it's this change that I WISH we told young people (and adults!) about. When the government passed the Representation of the People Act in 1832 (which you might know as the Great Reform Act), it changed the wording from "people" to "men."
Louder for those in the back:
In 1832, Members of Parliament deliberately excluded women from voting.
I think itâs crucial that we tell this story. So many young people are told - and are being told, right now, in classrooms all over Britain - that women couldnât vote before 1918. But they arenât being told WHY.
I was always under the impression that women couldnât vote because they had never voted. The law had never permitted them to do so. Coupled with wider social beliefs about femininity, men - who made the laws - were in no hurry to change them.
WRONG.
So wrong.
But you donât know what you donât know, right?
The Case of the Accidental Women Voters: Lichfield
Letâs not dwell on the depression that is legal discrimination.
Letâs look to those women who voted after the Great Reform Act made it illegal - because, yes, that shit happened! đ„ł
The first were a group of women from Lichfield in Staffordshire. They âaccidentallyâ voted in 1843 in a local parish election. Whatâs really interesting about this group of women is that they werenât all wealthy. The historian, Sarah Richardson, who made this wonderful discovery, found that some of these women were servants.
How did it happen?
Well, it turns out that an administrator sent a polling card to all the heads of households in Lichfield, without checking if those heads were female or not.
Whoops đ€
The Case of the Accidental Women Voters, Part Deux: Lily Maxwell
Now, hold on to your bonnets for this one because it is MARVELLOUS.
Fast forward to 1867.
Weâre in Manchester (HUZZAH) and itâs time for a by-election.
Once again, the administrator responsible for compiling the electoral list fails to notice that âLily Maxwellâ is a female. So, Lily is added to the list because she is, technically speaking, the head of a household that meets the property qualification for voting. (Itâs ÂŁ10, in case you wer wondering).
Lily is a 67-year-old widow, originally from Scotland, who rents a crockery shop in Chorlton. (Tragically, this house was demolished in the 1980s). Here she is:
One of the election candidates, Jacob Bright, spots the error on the electoral list but Bright is an advocate for womenâs suffrage. In fact, he is a co-founder of the newly-created Manchester branch of the National Society for Womenâs Suffrage. So guess what Jacob Bright doesnât do?
Yep, you guessed it. He doesnât tell the authorities about the mess-up đ€
On 26th November, 1867, Lily Maxwell became the first recorded woman to vote in a parliamentary contest.
And guess who she voted for?
Youâre right again. It was Jacob Bright, who went on to the win the by-election.
In the longer-term, Maxwellâs case encouraged a further 5,346 women to apply for inclusion on the electoral roll. Because the 1832 Act used the word âman,â suffrage supporters argued that this was ambiguous and could actually mean âwoman.â In 1868, the Court of Common Pleas threw out the case.
Yes, they may have failed, but we should see this as a turning point in British history. Political consciousness was now in full bloom đž
How Not to Teach Womenâs Suffrage
And that, dear reader, is what we should be teaching. We have to move past this depressive AF narrative that victimises women or the other narrative that turns them all into Suffragettes at the expense of over 100 yearsâ worth of activism.
Le'tâs hear it for the Lichfield voters and for Lily Maxwell.
Until next time.
Kaye x
P.S. For an extra history fix:
đ€ Listen to a podcast about the discovery of the Lichfield voters.
đ€ Learn more about Lily Maxwell.
đ€ Get a refresh of our journey into integrating the Industrial Revolution.